C# is easy to learn and is used to create Microsoft Windows desktop applications. It also has many features that speed up development time and reduce debugging costs.
It has a large community and offers great scalability, making it a popular choice for enterprise solutions and games like Unity. It’s also ideal for integrating with Xamarin for cross-platform mobile apps and virtual reality (VR) experiences.
Types
C# is a statically typed programming language that uses data types to define the characteristics and constraints of variables. Each variable must be assigned a data type to ensure that the correct values are used. This helps to avoid errors during compilation and at runtime. Data types are grouped into three categories: value types, reference types and pointer types.
Value types store the actual value of a variable. Examples of value types include int, char, and float. When a variable of a value type is passed around the program, it holds a reference to the memory location where the data is stored. When a value type is passed to another variable, changes made to the original variable are reflected in the new variable.
C# is easy to learn, especially for programmers familiar with other object-oriented languages. It also has a large community and is widely used for developing Desktop and Web Applications. It is also an efficient language in terms of resource management, avoiding memory leaks and other problems. However, it can be difficult to master the more advanced concepts of C#, including asynchronous programming and parallel processing. To make the most of your learning experience, you should read a C# tutorial and try out sample code to practice what you have learned. It is also helpful to understand how to identify and use C# keywords.
Variables
Variables in C# store reusable data that can be used throughout the program. This data can be anything from a string to an integer, float, or custom object. The data is accessed by its identifier, or name. Variables are essential to a program and they can be declared, assigned values, and viewed.
The variable concept is one of the fundamental concepts that you will need to understand as a new programmer. The variables are essentially the storage locations where the data will be stored in the computer memory. They are accessed through their name and the value is stored in them during the execution of the program. The values stored in the variables will disappear when the program ends.
Each variable has a specific type defined when it is created. This ensures that it will only store values that are compatible with the specified data type. For example, you can’t assign a string to a variable that is declared as an integer data type because the compiler will give an error at runtime.
When a variable is declared, it’s given an initial value by the use of the var keyword in combination with an identifier (or name). Once it has been initialized, you can then access its value through the equal sign (=). Since C# is a type-safe language, the compiler will ensure that a variable stores values that are compatible with its data type.
Inheritance
Inheritance is one of the key features of object-oriented programming. It allows classes to adopt the attributes (data members) and behaviors of other classes. The class that inherits is called a derived class or child class. A derived class may also introduce its own specific characteristics.
A derived class can access the public members of its base class by using the base keyword. However, it cannot access the private members of the base class unless they are marked as abstract. The derived class can override the implementation of a member in its parent class. The override must be declared in the derived class.
It is important to note that inheritance applies only to classes. Other types, such as structs and delegates, do not support inheritance. Attempting to inherit from a class that is not a class will cause a compiler error.
Inheritance is based on the “is a” relationship, which means that one class can be a subclass of another class. This is the same idea behind a family tree where a child can be a subclass of his parents or his grandparents. For example, the New York Times is a newspaper, and a giraffe is an animal. Inheritance is also the basis for polymorphism, where a method can accept many different types and do something different with each one.
Polymorphism
Polymorphism means “many forms.” In programming, it’s the ability to present the same interface for differing underlying forms (data types). For example, integers and floats are both numbers, but they have different underlying data.
In C#, polymorphism is implemented through functions and data members. Functions that can be applied to values of any type are called polymorphic. Data members that can be used to create instances of any type are known as polymorphic data types.
The polymorphic nature of C# allows it to support a number of different types of polymorphism, including parametric, method overloading and runtime. Parametric polymorphism occurs when a function has multiple implementations that are compatible with all possible input values. For example, the plus sign can be used to perform integer addition, floating-point addition or list concatenation. This is an example of parametric polymorphism.
Overloading is a type of polymorphism that occurs when a subclass implements its own version of a method from its superclass. When a caller program calls a method with the same name and parameters, the compiler determines which version of the method to invoke at runtime.
A good example of this is the class Dog, which has subtypes like Golden Retrievers and Basset Hounds. A function that operates on Dogs can also operate on a BMW or a Mercedes because they’re both cars and are derived from the same parent class.